Search

Home > UC Science Today > New maps of Jupiter will complement data collected from the Juno spacecraft
Podcast: UC Science Today
Episode:

New maps of Jupiter will complement data collected from the Juno spacecraft

Category: Science & Medicine
Duration: 00:01:04
Publish Date: 2016-07-19 19:00:00
Description: After a five-year voyage, NASA’s Juno spacecraft has arrived at Jupiter this month, prepared to orbit the planet 32 times over the next year. But before Juno’s approach, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley worked hard to map the gas giant from the Earth. Astronomer Imke de Pater and her team used radio emissions from Jupiter’s ammonia-filled atmosphere to create these maps, and says they will complement the data collected by Juno. "We essentially can provide context images for the Juno data." de Pater’s detailed maps can help explain features like the ammonia abundance at different locations on the planet. The Juno spacecraft will fly inside what’s known as radiation belts to collect data. "Everything on Jupiter changes. And so we will get a lot of data at different wavelengths. And since they’re all now taken at the same time we can interpret all the data together and really get a good understanding of Jupiter’s atmosphere." Researchers will probe at different levels of the atmosphere, from below the cloud layers to the stratosphere.
Total Play: 0